James McAvoy and Anne-Marie Duff are expecting their first child

James McAvoy, the actor, and his actress wife Anne-Marie Duff are expecting
their first child, the couple have announced.

McAvoy, 30, and Duff, who is nine years his senior, met in 2003 on the set of the drama Shameless when she played McAvoy's feisty girlfriend Fiona Gallagher.

Since then, McAvoy has forged a successful Hollywood career with starring roles in movies such as Wanted, with Angelina Jolie, Atonement, and the Narnia Chronicles.

Duff has become a respected TV and theatre actress, playing the likes of Queen Elizabeth in BBC series The Virgin Queen.

Speaking at the London premiere of his latest film, The Last Station, which also stars wife Anne-Marie Duff and Dame Helen Mirren, McAvoy said: ''It's excellent, it feels really great. I'm totally looking forward to being a dad. She looks fantastic. It's a McDuff adventure,'' he said.

Duff looked radiant in a black floor-length Escada pleated gown, which hid her bump at the Curzon Mayfair.

''I've known Anne-Marie for a long time, long before I knew James. They're a great, great couple, both unbelievably talented, both extremely nice and hard-working and professional, so it's going to be a great baby.''

The film's director Michael Hoffman joined in with the congratulations.

''I'm ecstatic – I've known about this for a while and I've been sworn to secrecy,'' he said.

''I know it's something they really, really wanted to have happen, and that's a wonderful marriage. I've gotten to see it up close and I have tremendous respect for both of them.''

He applauded the couple's three-year marriage.

''They really have an immense amount of fun together – having seen them in Germany while we were making the movie, it's a very creative, very warm, very open, mature, fantastic relationship,'' Hoffman added.

Duff, who has been nominated for three Bafta TV awards and a Bafta Film award for Nowhere Boy, in which she played John Lennon's mother, recently said she wanted to become a mother, saying: "I would love to have a baby."

Pointing towards the sky, she added: "As soon as the big fella makes it happen, it would be brilliant. I'm not putting it off but unfortunately bodies don't work that way."

The couple, who shun the celebrity limelight, married in a low-key ceremony in October 2006.

The Last King Of Scotland star McAvoy was recently linked with the role of James Bond creator Ian Fleming in a forthcoming film.

Duff last appeared on screen as British prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn in the BBC4 film Margot.

Her stage roles have included acclaimed performances in Saint Joan and King Lear, while she will play Ariel in The Tempest and Rosalind in As You Like It in two Sam Mendes productions later this year.